Red Condor Warns of Trending Phishing Campaign Targeting Attorneys

Fake requests for legal services once again on the uptick
By: Red Condor
 
Feb. 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Rohnert Park, Calif. – Old is new again for scammers as spam emails targeting attorneys are once again on the rise. Email security experts at Red Condor have issued a warning for trending phishing attacks requesting legal representation to help in the “collection of delinquent accounts.”  The majority of the messages with subject lines, including “Attn: Legal Counsel,” “Dear Attorney,” and “Legal Assistance,” appear to come from legitimate corporations from the Asia-Pacific region such as Nabtesco Corporation, Nippon Steel Corporation, South China Industrial Company and Turfchem Sdn. Bhd. Recent campaigns have also claimed to be from a London organization. But the emails actually originate from servers around the world, including Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Nigeria and the U.K. with a web mail sender address such as Yahoo.

In addition to using legitimate corporate contact information, the latest messages are typically well written and express a sense of urgency. Some of the emails are written as referrals suggesting that the email recipient contact another party, but the premise of these messages is the same; facilitating the collection of money from a company within the United States. Should the attorney respond to the email, the probable scenario would involve a fake check transaction. The fake client would hire the attorney to negotiate the collection of moneys owed by a fake customer. The customer would agree to an amount and send a fake check to the attorney. The client then requests that the attorney cash the check and keep a generous fee. By the time the attorney’s bank finds out the check is fake, the attorney has already sent the money and is then held responsible for the entire amount.

“While this type of email is not new, the campaigns have become increasingly more sophisticated, including registering domains to perpetuate the scam,” said Dr. Tom Steding, president and CEO of Red Condor. “These emails go back a couple of years and it is clear in today’s messages that scammers are working to make them look even more legitimate, using addresses, phone numbers and other contact information that could fool even the savviest of email users. Ultimately, the scam is about collecting money, and ironically, the scammers are targeting an industry that in many cases, is doing everything it can to prosecute them.”

This campaign was detected by Red Condor’s Zero Minute Defenses, specifically Spam Trigger (formerly Spam Trip Wire) filter that quickly identifies spam and phishing campaigns before they penetrate users’ networks. Once identified, the campaigns are quarantined and reviewed as rules are written and automatically distributed to Red Condor’s antispam appliance and Hosted Service customers.

About Red Condor
Red Condor is revolutionizing spam fighting with its next generation technology. Red Condor’s highly accurate email filter, hybrid architecture Vx Technology™, and fully managed appliances lead to a dramatic reduction in the cost of owning a premium spam filter. With solutions for small businesses, as well as ISPs with millions of email inboxes, Red Condor has a cost-effective, timesaving solution that is rapidly gaining market share. The system’s design has built-in zero tolerance for lost email, and a near zero false positive rate while achieving long-term spam block rates greater than 99%. Red Condor Archive is a secure message archiving service with lifetime retention and unlimited storage. The company’s next-generation technology is backed by a 24x7 customer care center staffed by email security experts at Red Condor’s headquarters. For more information, visit http://www.redcondor.com.
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Source:Red Condor
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Tags:Phishing Attack, Phishing, Anti-spam, Antispam Hosted Service, Email Security, Antispam, Spam, Network Appliance
Industry:Legal, Security, Internet
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